Quote:
Originally Posted by Qilin
Okay. Fine. I apologize if I misinterpreted your stance.
I'll make my position here very clear. Pardon me if it seems a bit like a rant.
Spoiler for rant:
Let's assume that all human motivations are inherently selfish. In contrast however, all humans are brought up with the idea that society deems these selfish motivations as "wrong" or "evil". As a result, a great deal of people encounter a form of dissonance between their innate selfish nature and the standards of society, and this conflict ultimately leads to most finding comfort by hiding their "impure" motivations behind facade of good will or "morality". It is important to note that this habit is done for the sake of the self and not for anyone else.
That is something I despise, but not for any reason pertaining to morality. I dislike it because it essentially draws people away from their true selves. I hate it when people avert their eyes from the truth right in front of them simply because it is uncomfortable to accept. And in reality, denying one's feelings will only do more harm than good. If left alone, it will never be dealt with and it might ever worsen. Accepting its existence also means dealing with it, or at least coping with it. It's pretty much a matter of practicality.
To put it in a different way, it's no different from escapism, where one purposefully avoids dealing with a problem while it gradually gets worse.
This can be seen in Kariya's case, where Zouken's treatment traumatized him to the extent of exposing and manipulating his hidden hatred and resentment towards Tokiomi. Even if you say he was insane, his pitiful state is still a clear reflection of the ugly side of his self he chose to deny. With his "heroic" facade forcefully stripped away from all the abuse he suffered, all that remained was all the accumulated insecurity and bitterness he refused to acknowledge.
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Hmm, I see more where your greater thought process lies, but I still disagree somewhat, not that I expect to change your mind. Like others, I do not interpret Kariya as being primarily motivated by his 'selfish desire' for Aoi, but rather he genuinely had Sakura as his main goal with perhaps some hidden feelings mixed in. While he's a cartoon character, were we to interpret him dynamically like a real person, it's entirely possible to have all sorts of motivations and thoughts going on in your head at once.
I see how you could interpret it differently and I'm not authoritative enough on the source material to rebuke your interpretation, but some clues to me that he genuinely cares is how he despises Zouken and is mortified by Sakura's treatment. He displays these emotions completely separately from Aoi. If he didn't really care, then he'd only be trying to look good in front of Aoi. I think it's somewhere in between, he cares about both factors, and he seemed like a level-headed guy before the Zouken infestation. What normal person wouldn't want to get the girl out of there? And going to the extremes that he did, sacrificing his body like that, can't be entirely selfish, at least IMO... it's selfless actually, regardless of the impure feelings he may have had or not. It's too great a sacrifice with too noble a goal to be boiled down to one selfish desire.
I also disagree partially with your 'rant,' as you put it. I think that there are some people out there who certainly have selfish motivations in mind, but do great things because of it. For instance, philanthropy in general in the modern sense of it is very much a PR move, but good things come of it anyways. Another example might be religious people who secretly desire to get into heaven for their good actions rather than really care about the people they are helping. In my view, again it's a little annoying due to being disingenuous, but if good results come of it, I don't see why we should complain. I do think you show something of your own moral judgment in that being a quality you despise. My morality steers me less towards caring about one's motivations and more for the results. In Kariya's case it ends in disaster, but that is simply due to the manipulation of outside forces. Thus, I do not hate him as you do - for I believe his mission was good in nature, and care less about his intentions then the hypothetical goal in mind of saving Sakura. Though like I said above, I think his intentions were mixed and not all selfish, as you do.